From show creator Kyle Long and executive producer/director Anthony Hemingway, the USA Network series Unsolved: The Murders of Tupac and the Notorious B.I.G. is a 10-episode scripted true crime limited series about the dual police investigations of Detective Greg Kading (Josh Duhamel) in 2006 and Detective Russell Poole (Jimmi Simpson) in 1997 into the murders of rap legends Tupac Shakur (Marcc Rose) and Christopher Wallace, aka The Notorious B.I.G. (Wavyy Jonez). The series also goes much deeper than the controversial killings and salacious headlines, as it explores the complicated friendship between the two men, looking for truth behind the conspiracies.

During this 1-on-1 phone interview with Collider, actor Jimmi Simpson talked about what drew him to Unsolved, the humanity that Kyle Long and Anthony Hemingway bring to this project, how his performance as Russell Poole evolved, why Poole became so obsessed with these cases, why these cases are still unsolved and unresolved, what he hopes viewers get from seeing this series, and whether he thinks there will ever be any resolution. He also talked about being a part of the HBO series Westworld, not knowing what he was getting himself into when he auditioned, how he approached his character in Season 1, and the reaction that fans will have to Season 2.

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Image via USA Network

Collider: When the possibility of Unsolved came your way, did you have any reservations, initially?

JIMMI SIMPSON: I plead ignorance, as the key to a lot of my good decisions. I auditioned for Westworld, thinking it was gonna be a knock-off spoof. Thank god, I didn’t know Anthony Hopkins was starring in it. With Unsolved, I knew the hits of Biggie and Tupac, but I didn’t really know much of anything. I certainly didn’t know who Russell Poole was. I had been working for a year and a half straight, and I’d been blessed with these projects that I really cared about and believed in and would watch myself, and I had just said to my agent and manager, since we have a very thin window of options here, let’s try to choose things that mean something for a minute, and then I’ll do silly stuff. And then, a week later, Unsolved came across. I read it and I was so struck by the writing. I was like, “Oh, man, I think the next beautiful project is already here.”

And then, I saw that Anthony Hemingway was attached as a director, and there’s no way I wouldn’t work with him. I had worked with him on The Newsroom on one episode, and it was a revelation of what a director can offer on a television set. I went and had breakfast with Anthony and (show creator) Kyle [Long]. I always assume I’m trying to pitch myself, no matter what, and I think they were trying to pitch themselves to me. It was just three sweet met, pitching each other to each other, and I was sold, definitely. Once I signed the contract, I met with them again at their offices and they were like, “How do you feel about following Johnny Depp?” I was like, “What do you mean?” And they were like, “He’s playing Russell Poole in the feature.” I was like, “What?! I have to read the trades more often. I had no idea!” My choices come from the heart. It’s about how it makes me feel. This instantly made me feel good, so I instantly agreed to it, especially because Anthony Hemingway was attached. And then, I met Kyle Long and he’s one of those lovely, kind of rare humans in Hollywood. It was just right on.

What most interested you about this story and the way that it’s been told in this series?

SIMPSON: I’m stunned by how Kyle Long was able to write this story in a way that was so fair and so balanced, and then Anthony Hemingway was able to take that material and direct it in a way that just takes you to the moon. No one has really pulled that off yet. I’m just impressed by what these men have done. I can’t believe I got to be a part of it. What we’re doing is providing you with more information, fairly, than anyone ever has. What you’re gonna be presented with, at the end of the show, is this perfectly drawn picture of everything that happened. And then, the audience will be like, “Why has nothing happened?!” We’re not the court system. We’re not saying, “This is what is . . .” We’re saying, “These are the facts.” No one has given all of the information, from all sides, this clearly before. I think what makes it so consuming is that it’s an amazing cop show. You can see the glint in this young man’s eye. Tupac was 25. It’s stunning that you’re not only drawn into the narrative, but with every moment, you’re like, “This happened,” and it was only 20 years ago.

What made you want to play Russell Poole?

SIMPSON: Once I signed on, I realized that this man is iconic, as someone who questioned the LAPD, after being such a staunch believer in the system of the force. I’d never played a role that was so laser-focused and so down to business. I noticed in the pilot that he just doesn’t respond to jokes. He’s never part of the laugh. I’m so used to being part of the laugh. At the first read-through, I imbued him with all of these characteristics that I thought would make him more interesting and I got all of this weirdly positive feedback. Even the network said, “That’s such a great read,” but I hadn’t heard from Anthony Hemingway. We were finally in the same space, five days later, and I said, “You know, that was just a rough sketch for the read-through. I’d love some guidance, based on what you saw.” He knows that I want a director that pulls no punches, so that we can get to the truth faster. He just paused and said, “Don’t make him weird.” My heart froze because I thought that was gonna be my way in. I was like, “Wait a minute, why would you hire me, if you don’t want him to be weird? I don’t understand! What am I supposed to do?” Every day of the pilot was this grueling attempt to try to execute this completely new type of character, and every day feeling like a failure, riding only on my innate trust in Anthony telling me, “No, that’s right.” I was sure it was gonna be my first big epic failure. I hate to say this, but I was hoping, based on my own lame emotions, that it wouldn’t go. And then, I heard it was getting picked up. James Roday, who’s friends with all of USA, said, “Your show is gonna go.” And then, I saw the pilot and Anthony’s masterful guidance worked. I was like, “Wow, I would love to do this series.” It was a love fest. It was a family, from the get-go. We all knew that we were making something that was special and needed to be told.

Russell Poole is such an interesting guy because he doesn’t seem like the type to become so obsessed with a case like this. What do you think it was about these murders, specifically, that really got to him, in such a way that it seemed like nothing else in his life mattered?

SIMPSON: It’s very clear, as far as my take on what this guy was going after. He had constructed his entire belief system based on having his father’s clear-cut guidance. His father was a Marine, and then a police officer, and Russell was a dedicated police officer. The force was his family and they were all out for good. That was his code, and his entire life was built on that. You’ll see in the series that there are some personal experiences that Russell was going through, and who knows if he was even aware of it, that really locked him into the case of Voletta Wallace losing her son prematurely even deeper. The main focus point for him was that the LAPD was his family, and the structure was real and reliable. As he started detecting holes in the LAPD’s honor and some specific officers, it was like the structure he had built his life on had started crumbling. If someone tells you that everything you believed in is actually a little BS, you’re like, “All right, I’m gonna get to the bottom of this because I was told this is real. I’m gonna figure it out ‘cause it should be real. This place should be real.” It was a quest for the truth, from the people who are supposed to protect the truth, but he felt were hiding it. How hard would you have to fight, to fight the person who’s withholding the truth, when they don’t want to give it to you? It tore him apart and consumed the entire latter half of his life.

With everything that you learned about these murders and these cases, would you say that these murders are unsolved, or are they better defined as unprosecuted?

SIMPSON: Unsolved applies, in legal terms, but I would say that unprosecuted makes more sense. It’s more ill prosecuted and waylaid. The problem is that it wasn’t done right, at the time, and once a certain window passes and half of your suspects are dead, it’s not even like, “We know who it is, they just didn’t prosecute.” They just didn’t do it right. They didn’t handle it right. We’re left with a certain degree of dimness. I think the facts are pretty clear, but there is a certain degree of dimness because it wasn’t handled properly, the first time.

It seems like everyone involved with trying to solve this case just had no idea what world they were even in.

SIMPSON: Oh, yeah, definitely! They had no idea what world they were in. They thought it was just that a gang-banger got killed. For a month, nobody even lifted a finger. Back then, everything was so hot and unsaid. Everything was written off, so quickly. Honestly, I don’t feel like we’ve changed that much, and frankly, things have gotten a little more dire with the shootings of young black men. It’s shocking! It’s a statistic that should have the entire country screaming, “Stop! Wait!” This show is so timely and pertinent, with everything that’s now being said out loud. We were just hiding it and not saying much about it, 20 years ago. Now, we’re talking about it, so let’s try to affect some real change because things are not fair, in this country, for a lot of people.

I was really surprised and impressed by the way that this series humanizes these men and this story. What do you think will most surprise people about who Tupac and Biggie were, and what do you hope people take away from watching Unsolved?

SIMPSON: I think what will most surprise people about who B.I.G. and Tupac were is that we’re actually going to show you who they were. In every other situation, it’s been one angle or another. It’s just human nature, when you’re telling your story, that obviously you’re gonna be a little bit more of the hero, and the other guy is gonna be a little bit more difficult to get along with. What you’re getting in Unsolved is the true representation. It’s not just B.I.G. and Tupac separately. Instead of one being vilified and the other being the hero, you’re also gonna get a snapshot of them, when they were actually pals. They were homies, flying across the country to support each other, to be around each other’s shows, and to help each other record. You’ll be in on that scene, and nobody ever talks about that. They haven’t shown you how lovely and beautiful these two men were, and how both of them had wonderful relationships with their mothers, who guided them and saved their lives, multiple times before they lost them. You’re finally gonna get the beautiful truth, instead of just the sordid tales.

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Image via USA Network

Do you think there will ever be any resolution to either or both of these cases?

SIMPSON: I think so. When you have something like Unsolved or Serial, or anything where you’re dealing with someone who’s done the research to clearly articulate an unresolved situation, you get a whole bunch more brains thinking about it. What Unsolved can do is that it can bring about, at the very least, a universal dialogue. Instead of five different theories that everybody thinks, with each one skewed to support itself, there’s gonna be a more conscious and conscientious idea of what happened, and people will be able to talk about it, all on the same level with the same information. This story is just so compelling. You just don’t even know that you’re absorbing history, half the time. That’s what’s so profound about it. It’s all real. Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction, and this is one of those situations, and everybody needs to know about exactly what happened. I’m so glad that Anthony and Kyle got together to tell this story, this way.

Westworld was mind-blowing and mind-altering, in so many ways. By the end of Season 1, did you feel that you had clarity, in regard to who this man was and how he evolved from William into the Man in Black, or did you feel like you were only just starting to scratch the surface of what happened there?

SIMPSON: I was playing it as if we’re just now scratching the surface. Once I was clear what was happening, it wasn’t to try to get to Ed [Harris], by the end of the season. It was to try to get to a believable seedling of what becomes Ed. In my mind’s eye, to help me as an actor and to get through what I needed to do, there was a certain romantic next few chapters, in which a very, very confused William tries to battle the anger that he’s feeling towards having his heart broken. So, that’s what I was playing. It was the crack into, “Okay, this could go two ways.”

Do you feel like the questions that you had, after finishing the first season, are getting answered in Season 2?

SIMPSON: I think so.

So, if our minds were blown by Season 1, how much more will our minds be blown by Season 2?

SIMPSON: In the David Cronenberg film Scanners, there’s a scene where Michael Ironside is demonstrating his psychic abilities. If your mind was blown by the first season, than in Season 2, you’re definitely the guy with glasses that gets the dark side of Ironside.

Unsolved: The Murders of Tupac and the Notorious B.I.G. airs on Tuesday nights on the USA Network.